| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: He placed the head upon a charger and offered it to Salome, who had
descended the steps to receive it. She remounted to the balcony, with
a light step; and in another moment the charger was carried about from
one table to another by the elderly female slave whom the tetrarch had
observed in the morning on the balcony of a neighbouring house, and
later in the chamber of Herodias.
When she approached him with her ghastly burden, he turned away his
head to avoid looking at it. Vitellius threw upon it an indifferent
glance.
Mannaeus descended from the pavilion, took the charger from the woman,
and exhibited the head to the Roman captains, then to all the guests
Herodias |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: upon a rock of granite, capriciously cut out like a camp-bed; there he
fell asleep without taking any precaution to defend himself while he
slept. He had made the sacrifice of his life. His last thought was one
of regret. He repented having left the Maugrabins, whose nomadic life
seemed to smile upon him now that he was far from them and without
help. He was awakened by the sun, whose pitiless rays fell with all
their force on the granite and produced an intolerable heat--for he
had had the stupidity to place himself adversely to the shadow thrown
by the verdant majestic heads of the palm trees. He looked at the
solitary trees and shuddered--they reminded him of the graceful shafts
crowned with foliage which characterize the Saracen columns in the
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: their eyes, in speaking, chanced to fall on me, it seemed as if
they looked on vacancy - as if they either did not see me, or were
very desirous to make it appear so. It was disagreeable, too, to
walk behind, and thus appear to acknowledge my own inferiority;
for, in truth, I considered myself pretty nearly as good as the
best of them, and wished them to know that I did so, and not to
imagine that I looked upon myself as a mere domestic, who knew her
own place too well to walk beside such fine ladies and gentlemen as
they were - though her young ladies might choose to have her with
them, and even condescend to converse with her when no better
company were at hand. Thus - I am almost ashamed to confess it -
Agnes Grey |
